Page 9 of Don't You Want Me, Baby?

Hmm. Now Amber knew something was going on.

‘You never say that, and it’s mostly done. What’s the tea?’

‘No tea. I’ll go finish the bar, but we are going to talk more about the Brad thing.’

‘Sharon! You can’t do that!’

‘Watch me. Bye!’ Her mate practically catapulted out of the door.

‘Nice. Now those two are being extra shifty. Just what I need.’ Shutting the filing cabinet and locking it up, she sat back at her desk. Checking the coast was clear, she brought up her bookmarks on the computer and began reading. She’d had enough weirdness for one morning. Time to have a little daydream about her somedayplans before she had to go back to reality. It seemed everyone was getting on with life, and she needed to shake off the bad mood. She only had herself to please now. Nothing to wait for. Procrastination and break-ups didn’t mix. She had her answer on the man in her life. Now she was single, she owed it to herself to get on with it. What she didn’t want to do was listen to everyone whispering behind her back about getting dumped. If she was going to be the talk of Hebblestone, she might as wellgive themsomething to talk about that wasn’t Bradley bloody Sloane. The old-new Amber Fitzpatrick was all about living her life to the full and getting what she longed for. If people had an opinion, then she’d be far too happy to care, either way.

Flicking through the tabs she’d bookmarked was a stark reminder of how things had changed in the last twenty-four hours. She went through each one. Bride directory. Deleted. Engagement-party inspiration. Gone. She deleted half a dozen more, until she landed on one that made her pause. Something that she’d been looking into before she and Bradley had had the marriage and baby talk themselves, and she’d shelved the idea. At the time, it had seemed like a last-resort plan, something she’d stumbled upon one day. It had started off innocently enough. She’d been looking for wedding ideas, and the Internet algorithms had worked their magic. Sucked her into parenting websites. From there, it was a downhill slope into everything from sperm donors to tips for single working mothers. From there, it was only a hop, skip and a jump to the IVF clinic she’d saved. Sperm donors sparked in her mind more these days than the perfect wedding dress, that was for sure. After the past few months of being bailed on and playing phone tag with the man who’d once stopped her in front of the jewellers’ window and told her that, when the eatery was opened, the ring would be his next mission. Towards the end, she couldn’t even get a day date with him unless she showed up masquerading as a pot wash atSloane’s.Well, not any more. It’s just me again.Typing30andsingleinto the search engine, she baulked at the depressing reading it made for.

Turning 30? Things to do before you die.

‘What the hell,’ she breathed out in a mutter. ‘Early menopause – how much time do you really have to bag your dream man? Seriously, who writes this shit?’ On a whim, she typed inmen turning 30. ‘Aww nice.How to enjoy your prime years. Daredevil adventures to meet that milestone?Are you frigging kidding me!’ She stabbed at the keys, killing all the pages one by one. ‘I hate the Internet. According to this thing, I’m basically washed up. Thanks Brad, for wasting a year of my egg shelf life!’

So that was it, apparently. She was too late. Research told her that she might as well start waxing her chin and stocking up on retinol supplements. She’d missed the winning-at-life medal, simply by turning another year older and daring not to be settled down in every aspect of her life. If the break-up wasn’t depressing enough, the last half hour of surfing sure did it. Her biological clock was now giving Big Ben a run for its money.

‘I am so getting drunk for my birthday.’

Deleting a pop-up about egg freezing, she noticed an advert.

‘No way,’ she breathed. Clicking on it, she read further. ‘You can get it delivered to your door now?’ She skimmed the legal text but it was legit. A real firm delivering baby batter with your morning pint of milk. Well, not quite. It wasn’t exactly Uber Baby. ‘Interesting.’ She wouldn’t need a man to have a baby this way. It was cheaper, private. Discreet.I could just do it. I have no-one else to answer to. No-one else to think about. I have my savings. IVF is a fortune compared. Even if it takes a few times, this could be it. My chance. I could have a family of my?—

‘What’s interesting?’ A deep, familiar voice rumbled from behind her.

‘Shit! Tyler, again? You scared me to death!’ She frantically clicked the tabs till her business plan was showing, just as Tyler leaned in to see what she was peering at on the screen.

‘Sorry.’ He laughed, putting a plate down next to her. ‘I brought you some breakfast.’ On the plate was an apple and cherry Danish, still warm from the oven. Amber’s stomach gurgled at the sight of her favourite sweet treat. ‘Glad to see you are back on your game.’

‘Game?’ she said, a mouthful of flaky, fruity deliciousness warping her words as she dived in for a bite. ‘Oh my God, these are even better than normal. You really are a god in the kitchen.’

‘Not just there,’ he retorted, his lips twitching as he watched her eat. ‘It’s nice to see you back at the computer, that’s all. You haven’t talked about your business plan lately. I see they’re still not doing anything with your gran’s old place.’Phew. He didn’t see what I was researching.Explaining that to Tyler would not go down well. He was the protective bear sort of friend, at least around her. He might think she was losing her mind. It was a little crazy, thinking about it. Having a baby on her own would be beyond hard, but the more she turned it over in her head, the less far-fetched it felt. She was already considering it a year ago, right? It wasn’t some whim. She’d done okay without her parents, right? Sure, she would rather do the whole nuclear family, but maybe she didn’t need the stereotypical make-up. People had babies in all kinds of ways every day. Ty’s mention of the Arms, however, did summon up a stir of fear in her. That place was still the goal. One of the two things she couldn’t live without on her to-do list for life.

‘I know,’ she said between bites of deliciousness. ‘Breaks my heart whenever I pass the place. I just wish I had been in a position to take it on when she got sick.’

‘Well, you were looking after her, and then grieving, and youhad this place to run. And with the overheads, it would have been hard, Amb.’

‘I know, my inheritance wouldn’t have covered it.’It still won’t, even with the years of saving I’ve managed since. ‘It was just bad timing.’ Her heart panged at her own choice of words. ‘Not that there’s ever a good time for your only remaining family member to pass away.’ She felt some of the cherry juice drip down her chin, and before she could reach for something to stem the flow, Tyler was handing her a napkin. ‘Thanks.’

‘No problem.’ His eyes shone with pride, and something else she couldn’t decipher. ‘You always tear into those things like you’ve never seen food before.’ His eyes crinkled at the corners. ‘In fact, with those panda eyes, you look like a wild racoon today.’

She balled up the napkin and threw it at him. ‘Very funny. It’s your fault; these little babies are addictive. I swear, you could do a mean side hustle as a takeaway bakery.’

‘Yeah, sure the brewery would love me dealing desserts out of the back door like some drug baron.’ He nodded to the screen again. ‘Care to share? I would love to see your ideas. I think I could help too, with the kitchen side of things.’ He threw her a cheeky wink. ‘Come on, you have to show me it sometime.’

‘No doubt you would have a lot to say, Mr Perfectionist.’ She ignored his eye roll. ‘I wanted to kinda go the traditional route, but Brad said no-one wants to eat old-style food any more.’

‘Screw Brad. Old-style food? What does he think you’re going to serve, turnip soup and soda bread? Let me have a quick look.’ He twirled the monitor to face him and her hand reached out to slap him away. ‘Hey! Come on!’

‘No,’ she protested, panicking as she tried to block his view. The company advertising sperm to your door was still bookmarked, and if he saw that, she would have a lot of embarrassed explaining to do. ‘It’s not ready!’ Which wasn’t exactly a lie. Her actual business planwasn’t finished. She’d stopped working so hard on it when things had got serious with Brad and now she was too fed up to even look at it. ‘It’s also private.’

‘Private, eh?’ Tyler teased. He lunged for the keyboard just as she hit the close button for the browser. Tyler’s eyes bulged, and she stabbed at the power button on the screen. He went rigid at her side. ‘I know what you’re up to you know. You can’t hide things from me.’

‘You know?’Jesus. He saw it.

‘Yep. Of course I do. You made it pretty obvious.’

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